Talk:Rocket Barrel

Might need splitting?

I've mentioned it on Talk:Warp Barrel before, but I feel like if the Bananza Warp Barrel gets split, then it's warranted (heck, probably even moreso) to have the Rocket Barrel introduced in Donkey Kong Country Returns be split from this article, since the DLC3 version which this article was originally about works nothing like the Retro Studios version.
Also, the barrel rockets from Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast's Cosmic Highway that were added during a rewrite may also need to be split as well, as it resembles either Rocket Barrel even less. Also, do we even know it's actually CALLED a "Rocket Barrel", too? It could be a conjectural that's been added here, since as far as I can tell, these spaceships don't actually have a name, and the Japanese website refers to the large one you can enter as a たるの形をした宇宙船 (taru no katachi o shita uchūsen, "barrel-shaped spaceship"), which appears more to be a description than a name.
I imagine that once all of these are split off, the original article could be renamed to "Rocket Barrel (Donkey Kong Country 3)", and perhaps the Retro Studios one may not need an identifier due to its prevalence in other titles since its debut in Returns. What we certainly DO need afterwards, is a disambiguation page: not only due to the existence of the Barrel Rocket from the TV series, but also the Barrel Jet from Donkey Kong 64, which was also called the "Rocketbarrel Pack", as well as the various Super Smash Bros. moves that involve it (e.g. Rocketbarrel Boost). rend (talk) (edits) 12:31, December 22, 2025 (EST)

Might need splitting: the proposal

This talk page proposal has already been settled. Please do not edit this section or its subsections. If you wish to discuss the article, please do so in a new section below the proposal.

As I stated above and on Talk:Warp Barrel, the Rocket Barrel article seems to be covering three entirely different subjects that only just so happen to be rockets made out of barrels (and technically covering a fourth one, too!) Let's examine all these subjects one by one:

• Rocket (Donkey Kong Country 3) - The subject this article was originally about. Actually, I'm not even sure if the thing is even called "Rocket Barrel", as the Player's Guide for DKC3 only refers to it as a "rocket" (also, "retro rockets" might refer to the rocket's thrusters). And no, the name shouldn't be derived from Rocket Barrel Ride, which does not feature this rocket at all and instead features Booster Barrels. Either way, this rocket works quite differently from the current Rocket Barrel, as seen in this footage. It only appears in Rocket Rush!, the penultimate level of the game, where, upon entering, the rocket actually descends downwards while fuel keeps depleting; you need to collect Fuel Drums throughout the level before it runs out. The rocket cannot actually ascend until you get the Ignition Barrel halfway through the level, as holding prior to that will cause the rocket to burn up more fuel to slow down its descend.
• Rocket Barrel (Donkey Kong Country Returns) - The current and most common understanding of a subject with this name, introduced a mere couple months after the article's creation, and naturally also included relatively early on the page itself (which is at least logical considering the subject is 100% called a "Rocket Barrel"). It debuts in Donkey Kong Country Returns and appears in lots more levels than the DKC3 rocket, appearing as early as Peaceful Pier, and in most levels, the Rocket Barrel automatically moves forwards to the right as well as automatically descending downwards, with it only ascending upwards when the player holds /; only in Lift-off Launch and Tiki Tong Terror does the Rocket Barrel control differently, with it automatically ascending upwards, but having free horizontal movement and allowing to speed up and slow down. Aside from that, it doesn't need to be fueled constantly, and it's destroyed in a single collision with anything. The Rocket Barrel returns in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (with upgraded health, too) and makes further cameos in The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Mario Kart World.

To me, it seems clear that these two have to be split. Given that the article originally was about the DKC3 subject, the Rocket Barrel from Returns should first be split off from this article, then the original article gets renamed to "Rocket (Donkey Kong Country 3)" (or "Rocket Barrel (Donkey Kong Country 3)" in case a source for it has been found), and then the split Rocket Barrel article can be moved to "Rocket Barrel" (or we could do the rename first and then turn the redirect into the split Returns article).

However, we're not done yet, because as I said before, as of a certain rewrite, this article also covers a third (and partially a fourth) type:

• Some nameless barrel-shaped spaceship (Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast) - An entirely unrelated subject, exclusively appearing on the Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast course Cosmic Highway, that was added during a rewrite alongside another unrelated subject, and somehow still is covered on this article alongside the other two types. This subject has three subtypes: two of them are smaller, but still relatively large ones of which multiples are seen in the background, and the third is a humongous one that is entered as part of the course's route. From what I can gather, this was conjecturally merged to the article, and doesn't actually have a name, with the closest we've got being a descriptor for the large subtype from the Japanese website, being たるの形をした宇宙船 (taru no katachi o shita uchūsen, "barrel-shaped spaceship"). The wiki also states that the smaller subtype also fires missiles, but from the footage I have seen, it looks like this was confused for the missiles shot by the Mecha Kong Mini in the same portion, so from the looks of it, these might as well be actually nothing more than motionless, uninteractable background objects, and probably not worth covering in its own article. One of the two smaller subtypes (the one we actually have an image of) kind of resembles the rocket from DKC3, with its round portholes and metal nose, but it's got these alien spaceship stand-like fins instead of the side thrusters, so it's likely a mere coincidence, especially given that the other subtypes don't resemble the DKC3 rocket in the slightest.
• Barrel Rocket (Donkey Kong Country television series) - Also entirely unrelated to any prior discussed types. It's a type of rocket from the TV series, used by Bluster Barrelworks for barrel shipments. Already has an article of its own, too.

It's clear to me that the Barrel Blast iteration should be split off from this article as well (presumably under a conjectural name like "Barrel spaceship"), if not outright removed entirely. And when that and the other aforementioned split both happen, the information on the Barrel Rocket can also be removed, given that it already got its own article.

After all that happens, I think we could benefit from having a Rocket Barrel disambiguation page, also as I stated above. After all, the Barrel Jet from Donkey Kong 64 was also called the "Rocketbarrel Pack" at one point, and the Booster Barrel mentioned way earlier could've been mistakenly called a "Rocket Barrel" too due to the name of the level they appear in.

Proposer: Arend (talk)

Splitting rocket (DKC3) and Rocket Barrel (Returns)

Split 6-1
Deadline: January 10, 2026, 23:59 (UTC)

Support

1. Arend (talk) Per proposal.
2. PrincessPeachFan (talk) Per. Even despite the same Japanese names, they look incredibly different.
3. EvieMaybe (talk) per proposal. for these things, i believe it's best to look into whether the object is the same mechanically. these absolutely are not.
4. Dive Rocket Barrel Launcher (talk) Per proposal.
5. LadySophie17 (talk) Per proposal.
6. Rocket Barrel Yoshi (talk) Per all.

Oppose

1. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) - I understand where you're coming from with this completely, but in the end it feels like a polished version of the DKC3 object. It's often forgotten that there are vertical segments involving them in DKCR, and in those segments they act essentially like the DKC3 one after it ignites, just trading the fuel limit for a collision limit. Compare: DKC3, DKCR. I would also like to point out Barrel Jet, which DKCR also completely recodified; nowadays, the only place you'll see the original DK64 original one is Smash Bros. due to it appearing in Brawl before DKCR.

The Fate of the Barrel Blast spaceship

Remove 0-5-1
Deadline: January 10, 2026, 23:59 (UTC)

Split into own page

Remove from this page

1. Arend (talk) Honestly, this feels like the more appropriate solution IMO. The smaller spaceships being able to shoot homing missiles appears to be misinformation, making them nothing more than background aesthetic for one portion of a race course; does that need its own coverage? As for the ginormous one racers traverse through as part of the Cosmic Highway course... well, that would already be covered on our Cosmic Highway page.
2. EvieMaybe (talk) per proposal.
3. Dive Rocket Barrel Launcher (talk) Per Arend.
4. LadySophie17 (talk) Per proposal.
5. Rocket Launcher Yoshi (talk) Per all.

Keep on this page

1. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) - Visually, it appears to derive from the DKC3 one (really, only the windows are particularly different, and that can be chalked up to size), so I think it should go wherever the DKC3 one goes. Note that Lockjaw is also near-unrecognizable in that game beyond the most superficial traits.

Comments ("Do a Rocket Barrel Roll!")

@PrincessPeachFan The thing regarding the Japanese name is, we don't know to which subject(s) it actually applies to (given it doesn't have a citation listed), especially since the DKC3 one is only referred to as "rocket" in the Player's Guide, not "Rocket Barrel" like the Returns one or what this Japanese name is a literal transcription of. As I said twice before, you can't look at an articles NiOL section and blindly assume that the one name listed there applies to every entity on the page, especially if they're all so different. rend (talk) (edits) 07:56, December 27, 2025 (EST)

They're still different. PrincessPeachFan (talk) 08:02, December 28, 2025 (EST)

Yes, I already know both Rocket Barrels (and the Barrel Blast rocket) are all different; why do you think I made this proposal? What exactly does this reiteration add to what I previously said? rend (talk) (edits) 08:20, December 28, 2025 (EST)

@Doc von Schmeltwick: Regarding the Barrel Blast rocket, the one you're talking about is really only one of the three types we see on Cosmic Highway. If you look at the footage I previously showed, you will see a second background rocket that looks virtually nothing like the DKC3 rocket, being elongated, having a glass dome for a nose, and having completely different fins (that may or may not be thrusters?):


Not to mention the one giant ship you go inside of looks very different as well, at least from behind. At most, one can mention in the Notes section how one of the three rockets look visually similar.
Also, it should be noted that in the Iwata Asks about Donkey Kong Country Returns, that game director Kensuke Tanabe stated, while discussing the Rocket Barrel levels from that game, that the Rocket Barrel is "an ability that wasn't in the series before." While it is very possible that they may have forgotten about the DKC3 rocket, it also looks like that they're treating the DKCR Rocket Barrel as a brand new feature instead of a returning one. rend (talk) (edits) 10:37, January 7, 2026 (EST)

I wouldn't consider those things that look like the submarine from Atlantis: The Lost Empire to be the same (I'd hardly consider them "barrels" or "rockets" at all), just the one that actually resembles the original. Anyways, Tanabe's role was more oversight anyway rather than active in design (and he notably did not oversee DKC3), given he's not part of either Rare or Retro. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 10:40, January 7, 2026 (EST)

If the Barrel Blast rocket poll fails, I guess it would be okay to at least explain better that the one barrel spaceship design resembles the DKC3 rocket, instead of the entire fleet. rend (talk) (edits) 10:50, January 7, 2026 (EST)